Odor and smoke from engine compartment

[TonyLS]

2004 LSV6 52K miles

Noticed a burning odor coming through the car vents. When I looked under the hood I saw a small amount of smoke rising up around the plastic engine cover closer to the passenger side of the engine, the smoke dissiapated after a while. I noticed the odor the last time I drove the car as well. I don't see anything on the garage floor. The temperature gauge is reading fine.

I know I need to bring this in, just thought I would see if others had a similar issue.

Thanks for any info you may have on this.

 

[rocafella99]

Leaking valve cover gasket!

 

[Quik LS]

yep - it only takes a very small oil dip to sneak past the gasket and onto the manifold to cause smoke and smell...

 

[TonyLS]

That's a bummer! it's not a huge job like the head gasket is it? can I drive it for a while if it's not too bad? I have an extended warrenty on it, I hope that will cover it.

 

[TonyLS]

wait, the valve cover gasket is the head gasket, right? I was mixing it up with the intake manifold gasket.

 

[Quik LS]

nope - the valve cover gasket goes between the valve cover and the head - it is fairly simple to replace - $35 part - but can take some time and patience.

The valve cover goes over the head - covering the cams/valves/springs.

 

[TonyLS]

Thanks quick!

This sounds to me as something I do not have get down ASAP, correct?
I'm thinking I can monitor the oil level and take it in within a week or 2, would you say that's ok?

 

[rocafella99]

Thanks quick!

This sounds to me as something I do not have get down ASAP, correct?
I'm thinking I can monitor the oil level and take it in within a week or 2, would you say that's ok?

I would. It will eventually ruin your coils and believe me you dont want that!

 

[Quik LS]

depends how big of a leak.... It's never good having oil spill onto a hot exhuast manifold....

 

[n8bachelor]

Valve cover gasket is one possibility, however I was under the impression that this was VERY rare on the gen2 V6 engine.

I had a similar issue to what you describe on my 04 v6 at around 40k... smoke coming through the vents of the car and a small puff rising from around the passenger side by the firewall when I opened the hood. I took it into the dealer for warranty service and they replaced the large vacuum hose above the intake manifold. As you can see below it was not making a good seal and leaking very small amounts of oil onto the intake and exhausts manifolds.

Check to see if this connection is loose on your engine. It's much easier and cheaper to fix than the VCG.


Yes I know the pic is bad.... I have cleaned the engine compartment since I took this pic.

 

[Quik LS]

you're right - Gen2 V6 - not likely VC gaskets. Sorry didn't see that in your first post.


and - clean up the engine bay

 

[LEOV5]

I have had that hose replaced under warranty and it took care of that last year. But the other day my wife noticed a smell from the vents, I then had not driven the car for abut 3 days and then upon warming up the car i noticed smoke form that side of the car under the hood. I checked it out and it looks like the valve cover gasket. I will be taking it in next week to see because I have a few other things that need tending to as well.

 

[TonyLS]

I had the large vacuum hose replaced in Oct.

I brought the car in the day after I noticed the smoke and Odor. Of course it wasn't doing it when driving to the dealer.

They took the plastic engineer cover off, checked all the hoses, checked the gaskets and said everything was fine. No signs of leaks at all. They mentioned that the V8 gaskets are noted to fail but said they really don't have problems with the V6.

Soooo, no problem found but my son and I saw the smoke and smelled the odor. My guess is I ran over something that needed some time to burn off. I've been driving the car for a week since I noticed the problem, I haven't noticed the smoke or ordor since.